Breaking News Instant updates and real-time market news.

Piper Jaffray analyst James Fish is keeping his Overweight rating with a $55 price target on Cisco but notes that his "theoretical" sum-of-the-parts valuation exercise on the company's various product lines and segments gives him a base case valuation of $57 per share. The analyst contends that while he is not calling for a split of the business, he also believes that the stock warrants a higher valuation than the market is offering. Fish sees "good" risk-reward on Cisco at current levels as long as the company's growth segments that include SD-WAN, HyperFlex, Collaboration SW, AppD and Security SW continue to execute.

Jefferies analyst George Notter lowered his price target for Cisco Systems to $54 from $62 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. While Cisco guided below Street expectations for the October quarter, the growth rate inflection isn't as bad as it looks due to the lapping of ASC 606 adoption impact and less impact from acquisitions, Notter tells investors in a research note. As such, the analyst thinks investors are overestimating the size of the negative sales growth inflection at Cisco. Further, the company has traditionally been very conservative when reducing expectations, adds Notter.

08/15/19

RBCM

08/15/19NO CHANGETarget $53RBCMOutperform

Cisco price target lowered to $53 from $64 at RBC Capital

RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves lowered his price target on Cisco (CSCO) to $53 after its "disappointing" Q1 guidance driven by the slowing macro environment and weakness in China revenues. Coupled with yesterday's weaker results from Netapp (NTAP), the analyst believes that the overall IT spending environment is slowing relative to consensus expectations, even though he still sees Cisco as a "better defensive name to own" within the hardware and networking sector. Steves is keeping his Outperform rating on the stock longer term based on its market-leading 50% share in network equipment and its ability to weather the current enterprise spending decline.

08/15/19

NEED

08/15/19NO CHANGENEEDHold

Cisco growth drivers ebbing, says Needham

Needham analyst Alex Henderson is keeping his Hold rating on Cisco after its Q4 results, saying that a slowing macro environment is looming while the company's growth drivers are "ebbing". The analyst notes that the company had benefited from a "major upgrade cycle" in Campus that is now approaching three years old and expects the annualized price hikes along with lower tax rates to slow earnings growth. Henderson adds that the bull thesis on Cisco will be further tested since the company will not be a "meaningful 5G play any time soon" and given the "choppy" Data Center spending backdrop.

08/15/19

BARD

08/15/19NO CHANGETarget $54BARDOutperform

Cisco price target lowered to $54 from $57 at Baird

Baird analyst Jonathan Ruykhaver lowered his price target on Cisco to $54 from $57 following a solid quarter which posted slight beats in both earnings and revenues. The guidance was lower than expected which points to the possibility of a continued weakness in service provider spending as increased macro pressures. Ruykhaver reiterated his Outperform rating on Cisco shares.

Technology & Internet Analyst Seyrafi holds a group luncheon meeting with Scott Gifis, President of AdRoll, a key re-targeting company that is a top buyer on Facebook, Google AdX and a key partner with Twitter, Pinterest, and others, in New York on September 24 at 12 pm hosted by FBN Securities.

Following Apple's (AAPL) Special Event, investors seemed to only care about Apple TV+'s unexpectedly low price, with stocks of streaming rivals like Netflix (NFLX) and Disney (DIS) quickly falling on potential unforeseen risks to competition, Tae Kim writes in this week's edition of Barron's. While the $4.99 a month price for Apple TV+ looks appealing, it may not be so attractive once consumers consider the number of shows the service will offer, the author contends, adding that the small lineup offered actually makes Apple TV+ look pricey compared with the competition. Reference Link

United Airlines stock has been range bound for much of the past year, as investors fretted about its ability to weather the impact of higher oil prices and potentially slowing growth, Ben Levisohn writes in this week's edition of Barron's. But the stock is just too cheap and may get a boost after a short squeeze, the publication notes. Reference Link

Amid talk of a coming recession and expectations that the Federal Reserve is about to lower interest rates again - theoretically crimping financial stocks - it is important to remember that buying stuff that is wildly out of favor, such as Bank of America's stock, is historically a great way to make money, Steven Sears writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Reference Link

Even in a rough year for retail stocks, Tapestry - the holding company that owns Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman - stands out as a flop, with shares down 25% in 2019, Avi Salzman writes in this week's edition of Barron's. The stock's recent weakness, however, opens an opportunity, the author contends, adding that investors should have more confidence in Tapestry's cash flow, which has help up. Reference Link

Amerco (UHAL), owner of U-Haul, is one of the "better-kept secrets" in the stock market as it has virtually no analyst coverage, communicates little with investors, and is run like a private business by controlling Shoen family, Andrew Bary writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Trading at $380, the shares look appealing after having been stuck in a range of $325-$400 for most of the past four years, the author notes. Reference Link

North American railroads like CSX (CSX), Union Pacific (UNP) and Canadian National Railway (CNI) have been Wall Street favorites, but freight volumes are declining amid worries over an economic slowdown and a trade war, price competition from truckers is pressuring rail rates and the railroads last hope for continued profit growth is efficiency gains, Bill Alpert writes in this week's edition of Barron's. However, there are limits to efficiency strategy as evident in Canada, where precision scheduled railroading was pioneered a decade ago on the long-haul runs of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), the author notes. Reference Link

Aimmune Therapeutics announced that the Allergenic Products Advisory Committee, or APAC, convened by the FDA voted to support the use of AR101, proposed trade name Palforzia, in children and teens with peanut allergy. Palforzia is a complex, biologic oral immunotherapy candidate designed to reduce the incidence and severity of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, after accidental exposure to peanut in patients aged 4 through 17 years with a confirmed diagnosis of peanut allergy. The APAC voted 7 to 2 that the efficacy data and 8 to 1 that the safety data, in conjunction with additional safeguards, are adequate to support the use of Palforzia.

AT&T's (T) CNN will stop hosting advertisements from Juul, which is 35% owned by Altria (MO) and other e-cigarette brands following concerns over an illness that has affected users of vaping products, the Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani reports. During a Tuesday town-hall meeting with CNN employees, network head Jeff Zucker said in response to a question about the company's advertising deal with Juul that the network will not allow Juul or other vaping brands to buy ads moving forward, Tani reports, citing several network sources. A CNN spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Beast that it will no longer allow e-cigarette ads, but will leave the door open to reverse course if research shows vaping products are not harmful. Reference Link

Basic Energy Services announced that T.M. "Roe" Patterson, the company's president and CEO and a member of its board, notified the company that he plans to transition away from the company to pursue other business opportunities. The company has begun an executive search for a new CEO. Patterson will continue to serve as president and CEO of Basic, and as a member of the board, while the company conducts a search for his successor, and will remain with Basic in an advisory capacity for a period of time after his replacement is chosen to facilitate an orderly transition. Once his successor is chosen, Patterson will resign from his position on the board as well. Additionally, the company announced that Julio Quintana, a current independent director of the company, will take on the additional role of chairman of the board, effective September 13. Quintana became a member of the board in 2016. Timothy Day, who has served as a member of the board and chairman since 2016, will continue to serve as a director of the company and as chair of the Compensation Committee of the Board.

Philips has been awarded a maximum $400M fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for digital imaging network picture archiving communications system products and maintenance. This was a competitive acquisition with ten offers received. This is the seventh contract competitively awarded under the open solicitation. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Locations of performance are California and other areas located within and outside the continental U.S., with a September. 12, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is FY19 through FY24 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency.

Raytheon was awarded a $427.3M contract for procurement of common sensor payload systems, spare parts and engineering and system support services. One bid was were solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of September 12, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity.